the public has already decided. but, hey, if you're in dallas this weekend, you've got some time. go see how president bush saved a city from disaster. restored a sense of calm in all of the disorder. a sense of cal all the disorder. "first look" is up next. good morning. it's finally friday. right now on "first look", president obama is in mexico talking syria. the first woman ever on the fbi's list of most wanted terrorists. so much for spring. parts of minnesota, wisconsin and wyoming are digging their way out of up to 15 inches of snow. plus the boston marathon bombers originally targeted the 4th of july. and a warning to all drivers. be careful when approaching the pay tolls. good morning. hundreds of residents are being ordered out of their homes in

southern california as a raging wildfire continues to burn more than 8,000 acres. red flag conditions have crews working overtime trying to contain a series of blazes on multiple fronts. stephanie stanton has the latest. >> reporter: officials are calling it the perfect storm for wildfires burning in southern california. dangerous santa ana winds and record temperatures fan flames just north of los angeles. fire destroyed homes, vehicles and anything in its path, including this agricultural complex. a smoke advisory was issued due to concerns of chemicals in the air. the blaze broke out early thursday morning. wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour caused it to burn out of control. by midday 500 firefighters were on the front lines. >> if we can use fire as a method to help us and do it safely without escape, we'll do it. >> reporter: more than a thousand homes were under a

mandatory evacuation order. >> our car is packed up with pictures and everything else that we can't replace. >> reporter: students at california state university channel islands were also told to leave their campus. air tankers battled the blaze from the air, but some residents on the ground took matters into your own hands. >> try to get everything moist so it slows it down. >> get the hose back from my neighbor so i can get the flames back down again. >> reporter: a handful of other fires are burning in southern california including the summit fire about an hour east of los angeles that left two firefighters injured, burned one home and charred some 3,000 acres. stephanie stanton, nbc news. the national rifle association's annual convention kicks off in houston today. despite months of backlash and a battle following last year's tragedied a sandy hook, they are predicting the largest crowd

ever. nbc's tracie potts has the latest on all that. she joins us live from washington. >> let's talk about the crowd down in houston this morning. over 70,000, it could be their biggest convention ever. it it comes after a year where they have been fighting here on capitol hill trying to preserve second amendment rights to own and bear a firearm. we're expecting a lot of conservative voices to talk about what the president of the nra says is a fight that's not over. sarah palin, rick perry, senator ted cruz, who led the fight which ended up being successful for them on capitol hill here as gun control did not pass. this is part strategy session, a part rally and part gun show. 600 dealers expected to attend. but outside of houston, there are lawmakers still feeling the pinch of the vote against gun

control. senator kelli ayotte back home, down 15 points in the polls after that vote. >> tracie potts live from washington, thanks so much for that. new information on the boston bombings. investigators say the marathon was not the original target. suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev reportedly told fbi officials he and his older brother tamerlan originally planned to attack on the 4th of july but they moved it up after they finished their bomb early. they then decided on the marathon as their target. the explosives were built in cambridge. family members finally claimed tamerlan's body transferring it it to a funeral home outside boston. he was killed two weeks ago during a shootout with police. also new this morning, we're learning the number of names added to a data base used to track terrorists has spiked. 875,000 names are now on that list including tamerlan tsarnaev, who was added in 2011.

president obama was in mexico thursday highlighting his push for immigration reform. speaking alongside the mexican president, he praised the relationship while vowing a future of cooperation on security and immigration reform. he also cautioned against a rush to further action in syria. >> we want to make sure we look before we leap and what we're doing is help fful to the situation as opposed to making it it more deadly or more complex. >> earlier thursday defense secretary chuck hagel told reporters the u.s. is thinking its opposition to arming syrian rebe rebels. the new york city skyline is one step closer to being restored. workers raised an 800-on to spire to the top of the tower. once permanently attached, the new trade center will stand.

1776 feet making it the tallest building in the western hemisphere. now it's time for your first look at this morning's scramble politi politics. you might know her as queen b., but the fed's have their own name. b-6. that's how she's referred to in documents after a freedom of information request by bloomberg news. they filed the request after lip sync gate. not one page mentions the singer by name. new hampshire senator kelli ayotte is defending her vote with a bill for equal pay. they already have enough laws. >> didn't add, it created a lot of burdens. i think it would have been hard to make it more difficult for job creators to create jobs.

>> and has gotten an earful from both sides and seen her approval rate i rating dip. two senators kay hagan and mary landrieu are seeing their numbers climb. a new policy shows voters in their home states are more likely to support them following their yes votes on the gun bill. both are up for reelection next year and considered extremely vulnerable to gop challengers. rhode island has become the tenth state to legalize same-sex marriage. the governor signed the bill after overwhelming approval from the state legislature. and in maryland, the governor signed legislation repealing the death penalty. it's the second state south of the mason dixon to outlaw capital punishment. that's your morning's dish of scrambled politics. now for a look at the national weather we turn to bill

karins. >> the snow and then the fires in the west. it's a lot of extremes out there. it continues this morning. it's snowing in six states on may 3rd. that's crazy. it's never happened before. the temperatures are still very cold in the midwest. still snowing in rochester, minnesota, where they picked up a foot yesterday. it's still snowing outside of des moines 37 they had snow in omaha and des moines and as far south as arkansas overnight down there in the ozarks. there's a the lot of heavy rain for our folks in north florida. if we're dealing with flooding concerns, the biggest concern will be areas near st. louis and down to the boot of missouri. estimates up to three to four inches of rain. you can see the heavy rain south of jackson around daytona beach area. we could see a lot of heavy rainfall also. the forecast, the kentucky derby on nbc this weekend, maybe some showers. >> thanks so much.

do you want to know how to measure real happiness? we'll tell you how. plus warren buffett did something yesterday that proved faster than any of his investments. and get ready for one of the most unpredictable events in sports. changing the world is exhausting business.

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our stories making news this morning, gunmen kill a pakistani prosecutor investing the assassination of the former leader. the reward has doubled for the first woman ever placed on the fbi's most wanted terrorist list. a former member of the black liberation army escaped from prison in 1979 where she was serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a new jersey state trooper. as the death toll in the bangladesh building collapse

grows, they say they warned people days before the crash. more than 500 people were killed in that collapse. turning tow no business, crude oil had its best day of the year. oil imports hit a 17-year low due to increased production in the u.s. news of the deadly factory crash in bangladesh brought to light disney's decision to pull factories from that country. it came before the collapse. forget gdp. scientists are measuring con tenement with a twitter based happiness tracker. christmas day was the happiest. saddest was the boston bombings. just many time for warren buffett's shareholder meeting, the or kl of omaha has joined twitter. his first tweet, warren in the house. he's gotten 247,000 followers.

one of the first to tweet his back, bill clinton, what took you so long? he should talk. a company's recent decision to dilute whiskey has shown a pop in sales. a classic mint ju lip will cost you $8 or $1,000. the latter gets you a sterling silver engraved cup. proceeds go to charity. coming up, is hillary clinton an unstoppable force for 2016? we'll hear from politico. and the best stories of the week, all that's coming up next. ♪ ♪

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is there any stopping hilary 2016? joining me now from our washington bureau to discuss this and more is kevin sarili. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> a new poll shows hillary clinton is by far the favorite for 2016 with 65% of the party's support. joe biden is a very distant second. no one else even cracks 5%. is this a done deal or could there be some dark horse candidate out there we're not paying attention to? >> obviously, we're still years away from the 2016 presidential campaign, but one thing is evident and that's the former

secretary of state has unparalleled support. 65% in the latest poll. what's interesting though if she were to run, joe biden skyrockets to the top of the poll and would garner 45% of the democratic support. so this far out, it looks like it's between hillary clinton and vice president joe biden. >> we know biden is hoping for. clinton has been pretty coy about whether or not she'll even run. what signs has she given us either way? >> she's hitting the speaking circuit. she's made several high profile speeches. she's just inked a book deal. i think in the coming months really and also years she's going to be continuing to weigh in on issues of the day. we saw this with the same-sex marriage announcement with her endorsement of same-sex marriage. so as we get closer, we'll see more of hillary clinton getting back into domestic politics.

>> let's turn now to gun control. joe mansion is hoping to get a second vote to expand background checks. could the outcome be different given those who voted against it the first time around? >> i was speaking with senator mansion, i ran into him over the weekend. when i asked him, he said he's committed to bringing a second bill. the question really becomes will this be any different than the first? obviously, the nra put up a tough fight and largely won. they did in that the bipartisan bill from senator mansion and senator toomey failed. so the question is how will this second proposal be any different from the first. >> did he have any thoughts on that? why would he push to get a vote again if he didn't think it would go differently? >> it's too early to tell, but it's one thing republicans will be looking at. when you look at the last debate and president obama has said he

wants to also make another push for this, there's a lot of pressure from certain districts and from the public to get something done on background checks and gun control, but you know, obviously, conservatives have really pushed back against that. it's going to be interesting to see if the dynamic shifts at all in the second debate. >> let's turn quickly to immigration. polls show that support for a pathway to citizenship has declined in the last month. why is that? >> i think any time a contentious issue such as immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship rise to the top of the national dialogue you're going to see perhaps a dip in the polls. obviously, this has rg ignited a national debate. senator marco rubio really the face of this bipartisan immigration proposal coming out of the senate. but i think that it's stoked the flames, if you will, of a contentious debate. >> thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. have a great day.

>> you too. from talking goats to racing squirrels, here's a look back at the week that was. >> reporter: what happened to spring? flash flooding, miles of mud and lots and lots of snow. but it it wasn't the storms that tripped up a weather man in houston. >> excuse me. here's the big picture. >> the president got raves for his term at comic in chief at the white house correspondents' dinner. >> need a burst of new energy, try some new things and my team and i talked about it. we were willing to try anything. so we borrowed one of michelle's tricks. >> reporter: but it was all business at the fbi with three new arrests in the boston bombings investigation. jason collins, the coming out party of a lifetime. >> he came out as black and gay. even more shocking, he came out as a player for the washington wizards. >> reporter: while the nfl's tim

tebow is just plain out, of the jets roster, that is. a real squirrel was escorted off the diamond while a fake one raced against a mere mortal. a swing and a miss for a tv reporter who scored a self-y. a new mountain dew ad, pepsi pull pulled it. >> i don't think i can do this. >> over at mcdonald's hints of all-daybreak fast, we're loving that. a cake-slinging baker scored a world record in china. a giant step closer to sending tourists to space. and back here on earth, now appearing on yelp, prison reviews? >> actual four star review of the arlington county detention facility by wendy. at no time did the officer violate any of my constitutional

privileges and even gave me a juice box after i said i was thirsty. yes, you heard right, they have juice boxes. >> leading the news this morning, in the "washington post," biden ponders a 2016 bid but a promotion to the top job seems to be a long shot. today he will headline a soldout dinner at the first in the state of south carolina. and in "the los angeles times," tax revenue yields multibillion-dollar sur plus. they have collected $4.5 billion more than expected. we'll be right back. hey america, even though she doesn't need them, cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try for yourself. [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me.

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it's called the most excite ing two minutes in sports. tomorrow the 139th run for the roses, the kentucky derby, takes place in louisville. danielle leigh is live at churchill downs with a very fancy hat and a preview. danielle, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. wouldn't be the kentucky derby without a great hat. while most people think of the kentucky derby as the main race tomorrow, this is really several days worth of festivities for louisville. it's the equivalent of a second christmas. today is kentucky oaks day. it's all about the ladies. the phillies will be racing. people have been pick out their outfits and getting ready for weeks. we're seeing the broad band hats coming back. pink today to go oi iowa long -- along with the hat. as much as this is about the horses, it's also about the

fashion and food. they expect to serve more than 500,000 meal here's. the most popular drink the mint julip, 145,000 of them. some of the top contenders are golden since. gates open today at 8:00 a.m. i'm danielle leigh, back to you. >> thanks so much, danielle. tomorrow nbc sports network's coverage of the kentucky derby begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. watch the race live right here on this nbc station. turning now to entertainment, robert downey jr. returns to theaters this weekend as "iron man." >> how many? >> 13, sir. >> how many can i carry? >> four 4, sir. >> it's on track to be one of the biggest openings of all

time. steven spielberg's next movie will be "american sniper." kyle was tragically killed at a shooting range in february. bradley cooper is currently slated to star in the project. thanks for watching. have a great weekend. "way too early" starts rugt now. federal authorities have arrested three accomplices of alleged boston bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev. the accomplices are two kazakhstanys. azamat tazhayakov and katy perry. damn you, terrorists.

with your weaponized consonants. why can't you have regular names? >> good morning, i'm bill karins and this is "way too early." we did not say those names yesterday. thank you for joining us on this friday. we have a lot of news to talk about including more evidence in favor of background checks was probably a good political decision. this comes as the nra is getting ready for a huge rally this weekend expected to draw gun enthusias enthusiasts. we'll look at both sides of the debate. also wildfires continue to burn out of control threatening homes and schools for a second day as firefighters struggle against dry conditions. we'll have a report from the region in just a few minutes. but first, let's get to our top story here in new york city. we begin with latest in the bombing investigation. officials with knowledge of dzhokhar tsarnaev's questioning before he was read his miranda rights revealed the two suspects originally planned to detonate